Leaderboard

Because it sucks ass to just click through dialog and also it's annoying. You get used to doing it and before you know it, you're completely lost since all you read is answer options. Additionally, I find the text in Numenera to not just be a slog to read, but also hard to visually read. The narrow height of the dialog window, as well as the really long text blocks do not help it at all. Honestly if I would feel more motivated, I'd probably investigate if I can overhaul the whole dialog interface. /Edit: Decided to expand the mod and added a vertical dialog interface now. Makes reading much more comfortable, imo.

Heh, my kid just texted me a photo of the "thank you for voting" card they got this morning. Im super proud. 😁

I finished the Lord of Nothing DLC for Pathfinder WotR. It was surprisingly fun, even if the ending was a bit meh. But... since I could import the resulting save into my main campaign, it teased me with the chance to revisit the result of my DLC playthrough once I get to chapter v in the main campaign. One section in particular stood out to me, the shadow realm. It gave me the same feeling as I had when I played the Underdark part in BG2 for the very first time. Not because they are aesthetically similar, but because they gave me the feeling of being in a very different place from everything I know. This one felt outright creepy most of the time. In the end, I sad screw this, and let the guy who had helped me do his own searching for his missing brother (just too much to backtrack to keep my promise to try to save said brother). Also... a nice little twist on choice and consequence, I picked the option to sacrifice myself, so the last boss fight was without my main character, just the rest of the party 😁 If Through the Ashes felt a bit on the short side, this one definitely kept me occupied for a week. Now back to the main campaign again and my inevitable rise to Lichdom ☠️ edit: I had just picked up my main game, imported the DLC save to add the results, when representatives of two different undead factions almost came to blows in the command room, over who was going to be my ally (because those two factions really don't get along)

I completed Torment: Tides of Numenera after about 40 hours It was a great game, I assume most of the criticism towards it was because people were comparing it to Planescape. It has similarities like the fascinating cities of Sagus Cliffs vs Sigil and then the mystery behind who is the Last Castoff and the Nameless One but the entire IP of Numenera is unique and created by Monte Cook. So this game should be judged on its own The overall narrative was excellent, I was left guessing right to the end but you uncover more and more parts of it as the game unfolds. I had a very hard decision at the end with the various options but I finally decided on the spoiler below but it was very thought provoking Choices The developers also did an excellent job at creating different ways to complete most quests so I always had options I was constantly motivated to explore and I found the lore engaging. The TB combat was very entertaining and you have many skills you can develop to make things interesting and strategic. But the game is not combat heavy and you can use dialogue to avoid lots of battles which for me undermines using your combat mechanics. So this was a " negative " but its also part of design so I cant say its a design flaw. I also found the various companions to be interesting and unique around there side quests, my favorite being Matkina the White Death Then some of the regions you come across were amazing, the whole Bloom concept was one of the best places I have ever explored. This is not part of the Monte Cook IP and it was created by George Ziets for this game Its recommended for anyone who wants a Planescape similar experience which is all about the mystery of the main protagonist set in a bizarre, enthralling and strange world with lots to do and see outside the main narrative It gets a 75/100 on the highly respected "BruceVC game rating system"

Not sure I'd actually blame EA that much. May not be a popular take, but IMO Bioware's terminal issues started before them. The trajectory was correctable, but the trend clear. Jade Empire was a flop that cost its main financer (MS) a lot of money. Largely due to people buying loss leading xboxs just to play one game, which is on MS, but all the later story problems were evident there. The characters and writing were still fresh enough for the Anoarth Sky(den, post ME1) jokes and observations of recycled plot to mostly be affectionate, and the sub Whedon banter hadn't completely outstayed its welcome. Dragon Age Origins may not have been a dev hell game by modern standards, but for the time took ages (heh) to develop and obviously went through multiple cycles and iterations. "Enslave nations with necromancy" anyone? And again, recycled characters and plot, whedonesque bants etc. Same with ME1. The trouble with that though is that eventually, it does get stale. Easy to blame the last games in the sequence for that, but they produced 4 games with essentially the same plot and essentially the same characters; that set everything after up for its staleness. And yes, ME2 failed utterly to progress the trilogies plot, except for the last dlc (and with it being dlc how many people actually played it vs the base game?), which put 3 into an impossible situation of trying to fit two games worth of plot in. There was also a fairly healthy dollop of games Just Moving On from the Bioware model, and Bioware taking so long to make the games- not unique to them of course- that where they tried to iterate they ended up being years behind the market and still feeling stale (both Veilguard and Anthem). That's certainly due to poor leadership from EA as well but EA were damned if they did, damned if they didn't there. Interfere with Bioware and get bad games --> EA's fault; don't interfere and bad games --> also EA's fault.

Race Report: My wife and I got to Sacramento on Thursday and the race was set for Sunday. That seems like a lot of days to hang out and wait, but there was a lot of prep stuff to do and it went fast. Basically check in on Thursday, swim practice Friday, check in bikes and gear on Saturday, and then show up to the transition area on Sunday morning at 5:00 AM. Swim - We take a bus to the swim start. It is a one way swim down the river, 2.4 miles long. It was nice the share a seat with my wife. She was very nervous and on the verge of tears, so I tried to keep it light. The swim starts at 7 AM, and you set yourself up in these pens based on your swim speed, so I dropped her off at her pen and then elbowed my way closer to the front. I had some good conversations with people. The guy next to me was from London, so he made quite the trip for this. The swim felt great. I was comfortable and moving well. I was passing a lot of people. There is a lot of contact in the swim, but I had no trouble. One guy managed to somehow cut me on the hand. I don't know if he got me with a nail or what. The swim starts in the somewhat shallow American river and then feeds into the colder and deeper Sacramento. It was 63 degrees, but I train in the ocean and it didn't bother me. The Sacramento was super fast! I finished in 51 minutes, which is almost 30 minutes faster that I did in my last full Ironman. We run up a ramp to the Sacramento A's/River Rats stadium to get our bikes. I did a full change from my wetsuit into a bike kit. Most people use tri suits, but I wanted to be comfortable. Bike - The bike started well. It is two 56 mile loops. The first 28 out felt good, but coming back my stomach started to bother me. I stomach was uneasy all week before the race, so I was worried about this. I had all this nutrition packed, but it was hard to eat anything with the way I felt. I started grabbing the electrolyte drink they were serving on the course and it helped a bit. The second loop was hard going out. The wind had picked up, so I had to do some work to maintain my pace. My goal was a 6 hour bike ride. That is basically a 19 mph average. I dropped to 17ish going out because of the wind, so when I turned around I started to push. I averaged 21-22 mph on the last 25 miles and finished in 5:59:10. It felt good to hit that goal. I also saw my wife twice and she looks great. I could tell she was having a good ride. Run- It was now around 2:30 PM and it was pretty hot out. I changed into running gear and started moving. My stomach was still a mess and I wasn't taking in many calories, but I did keep drinking electrolytes, water, coke, and orange slices. I really wanted to average 10 minutes a mile on this run, but pretty early on I realized that was not going to happen. I was walk/running a lot of 11:30 minute miles early on. Marathons are way too long. Mile 8-16 just sucked, but I did start to rebound on the last 10 miles. I ended up with a a 12:25 pace on the marathon, which is like 5:25 overall. It's not the result I was hoping for, but it was still better than my first race, and I've come to terms with the fact that this stuff is just hard. I saw my wife twice on the run and that was uplifting. She had made a race friend and they were making good progress. She had gotten a stress fracture on her foot about 5 weeks ago, so she had to stay off it, but she went out and still kept up a solid 15 minute mile pace. TLDR: We finished Ironman California! I ended up with a time of 12 hours and 41 minutes. That is over 2 and half hours faster than my previous attempt, so I'm happy. My wife finished her first with a time of 15 hours and 14 minutes. It's a huge relief to be done. We had a great year of training for it. Now I'm going to relax and play video games...atleast for a week or two.

If you like challenging turn-based tactics with boardgamey rules, Frosthaven 1.0 just went live https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2347080/view/705534184444133538

Update on the dog. Best news possible, the tumor on the spleen turned out to be a hematoma and the one in the testicles is benign. All in all great news, apart from being down a spleen, but so far there aren't any worrying signs. Dad had a car accident, a while ago, where he flipped the car and by some miracle the dog was unharmed when it happened, but it happened so long ago that we didn't connect the dots at all. But the surgeon says it can happen even from an injury that old.

Mutant Year Zero was their best game. Corruption 2099 does away with plot, story, characters with personality and all that. It is just three different soldiers and the combat. It is bland and gets boring very fast. Basically a game to get on sale if you want more Mutant Year Zero combat unburdened by anything but the combat. Miasma Chronicles returns to having a plot. It isn't very good. I skipped a lot of dialogue. Difficulty wise it is heavily front loaded until you get the stealth sniper. Then everything just becomes a sneaking around to see how you can pick off opponents one by one while avoiding the writing. Other tactics games by small dev studios I have in my list: Showgunners - a running man style story. I enjoyed it but it is very short (about 16-17 hours). They did add 5 more missions, integrated into the main story, as a free DLC. I have not tried those, and they may add another couple of hours. It scores a 68/100 on the widely recognized BruceVC* scale. Stirring Abyss - an underwater, cthulhu style xcom. You have to find oxygen on the maps to keep you going and your soldiers can go mad. A lot of good ideas, but I did not finish it as it rubbed me the wrong way after a while. 65ish/100 according to the internationally used BruceVC scale. Void Marauders - space pirates xcom. The reviews sadly are correct: fun ideas, but the maps are too large, too few, and all are just kill everything objectives, so after a couple of hours you have seen everything. 40/100 in the globally accepted BruceVC rating system. NORSE: Oath of Blood - viking combat on the lines of Expedition games. I like this one a lot. Like with Showgunners, I would have liked more of the game. I'm rating it 65/100 on the BruceVC scale due to the many bugs at launch. UFC Counterforce - do you believe most games have way too much handholding, are way too simple, and you shouldn't touch the game's campaign until you have spent at least 100 hours on skirmish maps learning the mechanics? UFC Counterforce is for you. The game that unlocks everything right from the start and says: we warned you you should have gone learned to swim before diving in the ocean. Unrated in any system due to complexity. Bonus: Band of Crusaders Demo I am not listing Every Day We Fight because it has real time action aiming for overwatch, which pulls you out of the turn based pace. If that doesn't bother you though... I hated that. * All rights to the BruceVC scale belong to its creator. Ratings in this post not actually official BruceVC scale ratings.

Underkeep's indeed out! Underkeep - Official Trailer! Underkeep is my favorite old-school dungeon crawler since Legend of Grimrock, and yes that includes Queen's Domain | PC Gamer Played the demo a good while back . Looks pretty lovely. Also, whilst it is an oldschool dungeon crawl, it plays pretty snappy. Like only a single right-click required to place items into corresponding slots, ranged weapons require no ammo cache too. Projects like this make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. It's like the glorious early days of home computing are back, where a handful of people could make something fun. Like the perfect antidote to the corporate boardroom and shareholder engagement metric bloat. And the only numbers pushed to go up here are for your xp, mana/health bars and enjoyment.

I picked up Underkeep on GoG. Looks like a very good Lands of Lore/M&M style game.

^Then whos going to monitor our troops testosterone levels?

Greetings Watchers, The Controller Support Public Test for Pillars of Eternity and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire is now live on XBOX on PC, Steam, and GOG. You can now play the whole of either game with a controller, from character creation to the end credits (and, in Deadfire, all the way out to naval combat), in both Real-Time with Pause and Turn-Based Mode. Deadfire’s support builds on the controller scheme from the console editions. Prefer to switch things up? Pick up your mouse and keyboard at any time, and the game follows right along. Deadfire’s Turn-Based Mode has also been reworked with the improvements we made for Pillars of Eternity’s Turn-Based Mode: turns now follow each character’s speed, combat is more lethal, and swapping weapons or drinking potions no longer costs your action. You can now switch Turn-Based Mode on or off during a playthrough, and the update brings a long list of fixes across combat, quests, audio, and the interface. As a reminder: This is a public test, so please expect bugs. The public test will run for some time as we continue to update it in preparation for a full release. We’ll be collecting your reports, issues, and suggestions throughout the test and doing our best to integrate that feedback into the final version. How to access the Public Test: SteamIn your Steam Library, right-click Pillars of Eternity or Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire and select “Properties.” Select the “Betas” tab, click the drop-down labeled “None,” and select “public_beta.” Close the window, and you should have a download ready. Launching the game should automatically trigger the download. If you don’t see the update, please restart your Steam client. GOGIn your game Library, Right click on Pillars of Eternity and go to "Manage Installation" -> Configure In "Beta Channels" select Public Beta Select "OK" and you should have a download ready. XBOX on PCSign-in on your Windows PC and launch the Xbox Insider Hub app (or install the Xbox Insider Hub from the Store first if necessary) Navigate to Previews > Pillars of Eternity – Hero Edition Select Join Wait for the registration to complete and be directed to the Store and install Pillars of Eternity – Hero Edition If you have an issue or want to share feedback, please contact us at support.obsidian.net or join our official Discord Server and help us shape the update together. As always, thank you for your continued support and for being part of these adventures in Eora with us. We’re thrilled to bring controller support to both games and can’t wait to see what you think. Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire – Patch 5.1.0.0Major FeaturesController support has been added to Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire! The whole game can be played with a controller, including character creation, exploration, combat in Real-Time with Pause and Turn-Based Mode, conversations, the inventory, the world map, and naval exploration and ship combat. Radial menus and action bars give quick access to abilities, spells, items, and party commands, and button prompts are shown throughout the interface. Switch between a controller and mouse and keyboard at any time; the interface and button prompts follow the input you’re using. Xbox and PlayStation controllers are supported on Windows, macOS, and Linux, as are Steam Deck and Steam Big Picture mode, including the on-screen keyboard for naming characters and writing notes. Turn-Based Mode (TBM) has been reworked with the improvements made for Pillars of Eternity’s Turn-Based Mode! Turns are now influenced by character speed, combat pacing has been adjusted for increased lethality, and certain actions (such as swapping weapons, drinking potions, or enabling modals) are now classified as free actions with per-turn limits. Turn-Based Mode can now be turned on or off during a playthrough while outside of combat, from the game options, a new HUD button, or the T key. Steam DeckPlayers on Steam Deck will need to enable the controller configuration by following the steps below. Open your Steam Library on your Steam Deck. Navigate to the Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire Select the Controller icon (gamepad icon) on the game's library page. Select your Current Layout to open the layout selection screen. Navigate to Templates. Select Gamepad with Joystick Trackpad or Gamepad if the first option isn't available. Select Apply Layout to save the configuration. Launch game and verify that the controller inputs are working correctly. Combat and Mechanics – Turn-Based Mode ReworkTBM turns have been reworked from Deadfire’s original Turn-Based Mode: Characters no longer take one turn per round. Instead, characters take turns as frequently as their Initiative (based on RTwP Recovery) allows. Faster characters (high Dexterity, lighter armor, and/or speed-improving effects) may take multiple turns each round, while slower characters may act less or even skip an entire round if encumbered by enough speed penalties. As Dexterity now determines how often characters take turns, it no longer also grants a Stride bonus in TBM. TBM lethality has been significantly increased: In addition to Deadfire’s existing lethality changes (increased Graze Range, reduced Miss Range, Basic attacks performing Full Attacks, etc.), TBM now increases damage dealt by any source by 35% globally. This change helps keep combat moving forward and highlights careful tactical decision-making. TBM Intellect has been reworked vs. RTwP: The effect of Intellect on duration in TBM has been increased from +/- 5% → 10% per point. TBM Initiative has been reworked: First-turn initiative uses a default recovery of 4s. A character’s initiative can never be below 1. TBM Free Actions have been reworked: Swapping weapon sets, drinking potions, and toggling modals (or switching within a modal group) are now all considered free actions. Each Free Action type is now limited to one activation per turn. E.g. you may drink a potion and change your active modal, but you may not drink two or more potions in the same turn, or change modal → attack → and then change it back. Additionally, no individual Free Action may be activated more than once in a turn. Free actions and consumables already used this turn now show “Already activated,” and abilities show “Action used” once the turn’s action is spent. TBM Phrase progression has been reworked: As turns are no longer bound to one per round, phrases no longer progress one phrase per turn. Phrases now progress based on the amount of initiative (recovery) that has elapsed since the Chanter’s last turn (or the start of combat). TBM Interrupt mechanics have been reworked: Successful interrupts add their interrupt value to the Initiative of the victim’s next turn, effectively pushing their turn back. Interrupt values in TBM have been increased over their RTwP equivalents. A successful interrupt can still cancel a victim’s pending spell casts. Prone status in TBM now adds an additional 3 initiative delay to the victim. GeneralCompleted-game saves from Pillars of Eternity can now be transferred to Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. Continue and Load Game on the title screen no longer fail to load a save. The game no longer crashes after searching the Old Battleground near Tikawara. The game no longer becomes unresponsive after Aloth uses Llengrath’s Warding Staff during a ship battle. The game no longer crashes when a hostile Form of the Helpless Beast ends on a character wearing a Strand of Favor. The game no longer crashes when an object or character is destroyed by Mohorā Tanga. Using Charge against Porokoa no longer crashes the game. A loading error no longer blocks entering a map after dead party members were left inside it. The water level in the Drowned Kingdom is now kept after saving and loading. The Free DLC icon on the main menu now shows the full list of DLC. Portraits from the Critical Role Pack now correctly require the DLC. QuestsThe Goods and Services quest can now be continued after ignoring it to follow the Principi questline. The scripted interaction with the statue in the Chamber of Waves during The Cornett’s Call can now be started. Using Abjuration on the Tyrant of Decay in the Crucible no longer breaks quest progression. Hunting Season no longer auto-completes an objective and fails after the Royal Deadfire Company questline is locked out. Leaving the Workshop in Sayuka no longer leaves the map in a broken state after the Royal Deadfire Company questline is locked out. The scripted interaction in Bent Bough Forest can no longer be repeated by attacking the cultists right after they devour Audr. Neketaka guards no longer turn hostile during the fights with Katrenn and Lord Admiral Imp in Turn-Based Mode. Figures in the Engwithan Digsite now highlight when hovered over. Combat and Mechanics – Turn-Based ModeShining Beacon now affects every enemy in its area. Maura’s Writhing Tentacles, Whispers of the Wind, Twinned Shot, Scyorielaphas’s Ocean’s Lash, and the enemy Sound Alarm ability no longer cause a long wait before the next turn. Enemies using Escape no longer get stuck in an animation loop. Combat and Mechanics – GeneralLower Their Guard, Deadly Surprise, Takedown Combo, Retribution, and Wizard’s Double now end after one attack as intended, instead of two. The Drawing Cut enchantment of Duskfall and the Veteran’s Maneuver enchantment of Saint’s War Armor now expire after the intended number of hits. The untargetable effect of Shadowed Hunters now ends after the first attack, for both the ranger and the animal companion. The Dug-in enchantment of Wahai Pōraga and the monk’s Blade Turning now end on the first movement command. Weakness afflictions no longer retrigger repeatedly and cause severe frame rate drops. Switching weapon sets quickly no longer leaves several weapon proficiencies active at once. Casting spells while in Spiritshift: Stag no longer leaves the druid frozen and unresponsive. Damage-over-time effects now count toward the soulbound upgrades of Marux Amanth. Visual and AudioCapes now display correctly on the paper doll and on characters with the female body type. Berath’s and Rinco’s interaction circles now line up with their models. Parts of the Scyorielaphas and Vithrack Brute models no longer flicker. Soul Collector animations now play at full frame rate. The Lagufaeth Broodmother now returns to the water during the cutscene in Hōhina Ravine, and Savia now walks up to the cell during The Drunk Sailor. The wind effect pulling the Messenger during its revival in Harbingers’ Watch is no longer oversaturated and blurred. The icon background of some soulbound items no longer changes color when the item is equipped. The Oculus security beam now plays its sound effect. The howling wind while climbing with the icepicks in Harbingers’ Watch no longer loops until the game is restarted. The first line of dialogue with the whirling vortex in the Temple of Revelation now has its audio. User Interface and InteractionThe End Turn and Delay Turn buttons now show their keybindings in their tooltips. The Turn-Based Mode initiative window can no longer be moved off screen at lower resolutions. Retraining a character through a port vendor now opens the Level Up screen. Status notifications no longer disappear and stop updating after visiting the City or World Map. Minimizing the game during a conversation with a single dialogue option no longer replaces it with an error message. NPC bark text no longer stays on screen in the main menu after quitting. A “[Missing string -1]” tooltip no longer appears on some buttons in confirmation windows. A “Missing String” entry no longer appears in the companion relationship log after desecrating the shrine at Teo Ramunga.

I just finished Omen Exitio: Hunger after about 15 hours Its a gamebook about a journalist investigating a child's disappearance and murder. It has several adult themes that include the dark occult, child murders, cannibalism and other similar things. It is another game that is based on a Cthulhu theme It has some very scary moments and events and its definitely worth using a headset for maximum horror. Its a worthwhile game and gets a 65\100 on the globally respected " BruceVC game rating system " Now Im playing Torment: Tides of Numenera. I heard that this game was suppose to be the spiritual successor of Planescape Torment but it disappointed some people I am really enjoying it. I know nothing about the Numenera TT game so the lore and mechanics was confusing in the beginning but after 8 hours and some occasional research its all making sense. The main city, Sagus Cliffs, does remind me of Sigil with all the strange creatures and idiosyncratic events that you encounter. The developers have done a really good job at creating interest in the world for you to explore I like my party members and there different bizarre personalities and the combat system grows on you. The quests are varied and interesting. Its very similar to Planescape where combat can and should be avoided unless necessary and dialogue options are very important Im very interested in the main narrative around the Changing God and his Castoffs so its been an excellent experience so far 💫

Took a small detour from my Lich game in WotR to try out two of the DLC's I completed "Through the Ashes". It was fun. A bit like low level Baldurs Gate 1 play (I know, nothing even comparable in scope, but the feeling was similar, scrounging for real weapons instead of the rotten rags and sham theater props you start out with). I decided to try something I was unfamiliar with and picked a Primal Druid with a Smilodon pet. Accepted the "default" crew of odd ball party members. Ended up at level 5 and continued with the last save game into "Lord of Nothing" The cut scenes in the latter are absolutely top notch imho. I am currently level 7 and can now ride my Smilodon. I don't think it was particularly wise, but I decided to hoard the ice shards myself for the time being. Also, that Numerian bard was a nice addition. Got a party slot immediately 😄 edit: Nevermind, I just cant read backgrounds properly... wondering why she had no charisma worth writing home about edit2: Some memorable moments from the wizards tower... finding a wand of cure hangovers, fighting a fermented beer elemental and last but not least, the wizard getting beaten by a dead horse 🤣

Pathfinder: WotR Getting to what I suspect is the end of chapter iii. Botched a few quests. Nothing important (for my particular play through). I missed a third part of the silver dragon (Mendelev? Sp?), a quest in the DLC town (Gundrum or some such) is unfinishable. I completed everything else, but the guards will be sick forever now I suppose 🤔 Also completely ignoring Nenio and her nightmare quest. Never felt any interest in the character personality or story anyway 🤷‍♂️ Doing the first island chain the Treasure Island DLC. Just passing times while leveling up my outposts to bastions. Because I cant remember if they stay bastions when I get to chapter v 🫣 Edit: Running out of enemy armies to destroy, I think I will get under time pressure anyway to progress the story, because you can't keep people happy without killing stuff. Noticed that I had forgotten a tiefling, that i had in my first play through. I wonder what happened to Woljif (sp?)?

@majestic and @marelooke I finished SOMA after 20 hours Incredible and thought provoking narrative. It made me really think about a myriad of existential questions like life and death and is existence just consciousness? Im impressed that a little IT company could come up with this type of narrative @Gorth you like sci-fi? You should play this game, I think you will be blown away by its concepts I'm not that good at Sci-Fi adventure games because I lack the imagination. I like Sci-Fi but its not like fantasy or horror for me where I spend most of my time. So I used a few game guides in parts of the game. The monster escape scenes were terrifying and Frictional always delivers on that mechanic and atmosphere I did end up making some profound and incredibly difficult deciions Hard Choices Great game overall and recommended as the best sci-fi adventure game I have ever played Its gets a solid 68\100 on the " BruceVC game rating system

Finished Star Wars Zero Company and Control: Resonant. I enjoyed both games, though neither of them is likely to become an "all timer". Zero Company is an all around "pretty-ok" package. Doesn't provide excel in anything, but all it does is pretty enjoyable. Combat is a bit too shallow and repetitive for my taste. It's a quite different combat model then XCOMs, and I would like to see the team expand on this game. Be it a sequel or an expansion. It is understandable, that licensed StarWars game will be aimed to be a highly accessible experience, but even playing on expert the game stopped being engaging about halfway through. It is FiraXCOM tradition, that difficulty curve is somewhat manufactured - a bit oppressive at first, then you enter (in my opinion) best middleground where you have genuine challenge and interesting opportunities for counterplay, and the end game is victory lap where you maw through enemies without fear of hurt. ZCOM in my opinion entered third stage far, far too early. Though of course your mileage may vary. Now story of ZCOM was what disappointed me more, mostly because it was so highly spoken of. It's easily best integration of a narrative in this time of game I have seen - though it comes IMO at a heavy cost of the gameplay fun. Overall, I found the plot to be just serviceable with one strong contrivance where everyone behaves in the most irrational manner just to allow a story beat to happen. The character writing is great, though, and the game makes good use of the IP - on that front, through, I felt I was missing out by not being familiar if some of game's references. I think some of its beats would come out of nowhere if someone wasn't at least somewhat familiar with the prequels. There was one element which I found kinda daft, but it seems to be canon and not game's invention🤷. Control: Resonant - good! Storywise it builds mostly on what Control1 established, so worldbuilding isn't as consistant and plenty as it was in the original. In general, story seems more like an excuse to run around in distorted Manhattan, rather than reason for play itself. It also felt smaller - Control1, while humble in its storytelling was evocative, painting a world of unending possibilities, while this one just feels far more contained. Still, I did enjoy the story that was there with some caveats. I really liked Dylan as a protagonist - I found him to be quite a nuanced and subtle character. Combat is ok - satisfying to press buttons, but pretty simple and there is a lot of it. What I liked the most is the map design and exploration. While it looks like open world game, and older zones can feel like it once you unlock new powers, for the most part progression is far more guided and maze like then it would initially seem. Gravity mechanic is novel, and I liked sidequests and puzzles. To me it was a perfect balance, between allowing players to figure things out without being frustrating. Still, there is something that feels incomplete about the title. Perhaps, it is due to how hard it teases a potential DLC/sequel. Overall, recommendation on both, perhaps on sale, as I didn't think either of games delivers anything exceptionally well. Still, perfectly enjoyable titles.

Who knew it was that easy

Anyway @BruceVC seems like your alerts have failed, since Solasta “full edition” is on sale on GOG for some time, and it will for 7 more days 😁 GOG.comSolasta: Crown of the Magister - Lightbringers Edition 50...Grab your torches and jump into the World of Solasta with the Lightbringers Edition! Get

Trump says Ukraine U.S. should get a new president as he blames Zelenskyy himself for US diesel prices Fixed it for him...

At night, the game is much less enjoyable to play because you cannot see anything, i put my gamma on max and equipped torch and it's still so dark. I know its supposed to be dark and encourage the player to sleep but it's almost unplayable for me. I want an option to make the screen have a blue tint or something instead of pure darkness. Also wolf spider doesn't look like grounded art style too much hair and I don't like talon things but good game grounded

Top notch thumbnailing, now it looks like the game title is TESVI: Official Name Reveal. Which would at least be more distinctive than Sentinel.

Tico covers purple rain

Nah, keep it within the USA, so Greenland

BioWare did good business. They've been chasing trends though since day #1. (See MMO/RTS/RPG Battleground Infinity, course corrected at that fateful Interplay pitch). After, they applied their "Bioware romance/companion" formula influenced by Final Fantasy/JRPGs to whatever was hot at the time.(Mass Effect? Gears Of War. DA3? Skyrim. And naturally, The Old Republic was meant to be yet another WOW killer. ) Also the days of their commercial heights artistically were the lowest of this industry as far as I'm concerned. It was the peak era of the traditional gatekeepers: Very few publishers ruled the show, backed by physical retail and shelf space made available for safe formulas primarily -- and then exploding production budgets with the Xbox 360 HD era did the "rest". With several established franchises all over the industry starting to chase the "Call Of Duty / Gears Of War" crowd. Including Resident Evil, Final Fantasy, etc. etc. Several genres saw the axe outright (only to re-appear and flourish again in the Digital Era after). Luckily, that era is over -- and it's even cannibalizing itself. If every game starts to become a little samey, nothing sticks out (plus physical retail at Walmart et all can't gatekeep anymore what's available to a mass audience). Final Fantasy ain't Final anymore? I'll just play Claire Obscur, Persona or get good ol' FF6 in a digital store of my choice. Dragon Age ain't Dragon Age anymore? Let's play BG3, WOTR, Pillars etc. Capcom pivoted back with Resident Evil after 6 -- probably as they realized that going that direction was a dead end. (Why play Resident Evil if you've already got Call Of Duty anyway). Square Enix though? Still learning this the hard way. And whilst I'm not "glad" that Bioware is gone -- they did some good games regardless and it's actual people losing jobs here -- I'm glad that what they stood for as a company is changing. TL;DR: Bioware: We want Call Of Duty's audience. BioWare's Muzyka: Line Between RPGs, Shooters Blurring | WIRED Warhorse: "We just wanna make a damn great RPG." (And we don't give a damn if Call Of Duty players don't like us -- those who like us are going to be hit hard and tell all their friends about it, unlike Corporate Checklist Compromise 27582 swallowed by the algorithm and same same fatigue outright.

RIP. He was a great actor but also seemed like pretty good guy.

Sadly I never finished it. Loved the beta or early access or what it was, but then it took so long for the final game to release that I was kinda over it and never wanted to try again. This game also made me realize that lots of text doesn't make a good RPG. There's so much dialog that could be trimmed down... I really don't want to slog through that again. Sometimes less is more. I've read some of the first short stories as well. The ones I've read were pretty cool. Then I started the next one and... it felt bad and again I lost motivation to continue. Never read the remaining stories.

Tides of Numenera gave me the most perplexing dreams of my life.

@BruceVC, Solasta I is on sale in Steam. Base game 75% off. Bundle with all DLCs 53% off.

Just started playing Zoria: Age of Shattering. It's a game whose crowdfunding I supported years ago, but am getting around to playing it only now. For a game made by just three people, it is pretty impressive so far. There are no bells and whistles. The aesthetics are very minimal, including character creation. But I am completely okay with all that. Still have to find out about the mechanics of the game, though. The one thing I've already learned about the game: there is a TON of loot to be picked up. And there is a lot of crafting and enchanting you can do right from the beginning of the game. If any of you has played the game, please share any beginner tips you may have.

ea can be blamed for a lot certainly not switch dai to that engine that couldn't run rpg at all chasing widest audience and highest graphic quality almost always end in disaster

They are more similar than you'd expect based on the initial look and design. On its surface, JA looks much more up close and personal, with each colorful merc moving across a small sector looking for cover and utilizing a wide variety of weapons. Menace looks more like a traditional wargame, with squads and armor on a very square map. But it is also utilizing colorful mercs moving across a small sector utilizing a wide variety of weapons. Instead of a single soldier with hit points, you have a squad with soldiers. As you lose soldiers, you become less effective. You still need to find cover, use elevation, and understand weapon range. So combat wise, I'd say they end up playing very similar despite the very different look and perspective. In terms of mission and structure, Menace is a lot more random and replayable. That is where it shares its Battle Brothers roots. They are both great and menacing.

You are, in my humble opinion, being rather generous there... Mass Effect 3 felt like like a rush of, often very disappointing, bullet points they just had to hit to finish up the trilogy, the only part that felt properly fleshed out was the whole Tuchanka section (which, to be fair, was fantastic). One of the causes, at least in my mind is that I believe Mass Effect 2 did not move the overarching story forward enough for BioWare to be able to stick to the series being a trilogy (a promise they made somewhere early on and probably should have broken), and it really showed. There also was the issue that the writers left, I think, at least there were some really jarring continuity issues that popped up in the third game (the whole Quarian/Geth conclusion was...disappointing after all the build-up). Andromeda was just "meh" (I'll finish it one of these days, maybe). It actually started off pretty promising with the whole alien thing, but the pivot to colonist drama kinda killed my interest in the story, especially given all the other jank the game came with. Not sure which other games they made were any more than "decent". Dragon Age just went from identity crisis to identity crisis after Origins (which itself was a bit of a technical mess). Anthem was...well, Anthem. They arguably botched SWToR, the Star Wars MMO, as well with the endgame being a disaster area for months and months after launch driving away a huge percentage of the initial playerbase. The game is still going, at least, but hard to say how much of a success it is now, but if there ever was a game that had an actual shot at "dethroning" World of Warcraft, that was the one. Alas, it was not meant to be. It always sucks when a studio that used to be great goes under, but let's face it "old" BioWare has been dead for a very, very long time already and it's honestly amazing they didn't get Westwood-ed earlier. I hope all the talented developers working there get to quickly move on to other, and better, endeavours now that they've been freed of EA's yoke.

Im sad about Bioware closing down. They developed some of the best CRPG I have ever played and BG2 ToB is still my favorite game of all time I also enjoyed ME1-3 and Andromeda and DA1-3 Veilguard was an absolute sales disaster and that was the final nail in the coffin for the new owners RIP Bioware

I mentioned this before but WotR is my second best party based RPG of all time and 3rd best game of all time It delivered on so many things. I really enjoyed the different companion side-quests and the various Romance arcs, my favorite being Arueshalae and her quest to find humanity\love and her constant internal clashes with her succubus self There is a known rare bug with Woljif where he wont reappear, it happened in my game and once he left I never came across him again which was a pity I loved the RTS side of the game, I ended up defeating every single enemy unit on the map. It was a nice break from the RPG elements

The graphics look ridiculously good for stop-motion animation

Enshrouded 1.0 -- the "can't change difficulty settings" is fixed. I now remember mostly how to play, but since it's been at least a few "big updates" since I last played, there's a lot of small stuff that's changed/isn't what I remember. I don't like how the basic magic wand attack, on the 3rd or 4th attack/cast/fire, it does this different fancier animation for the next attack that's longer - it throws off my sense of timing and drives me batty re: mouse-clicking. I'm guessing it does a little extra damage? I don't recall wand base attacks doing that before, certainly not to this extent. Other very minor UI stuff like changed recipes and a plethora of auto-UI messages popping up (you can disable a lot of them but there's lots and I'm finding it difficult to figure out what controls what). Or if this or that in the list is even what I'm bothered by. Not saying it's bad per se - more like a lot of minor irritations, vs. what I knew before plus just in general (not UI things I would ever like). Sometimes it feels like more clicks then before, which to me isn't an improvement. Some might like all of these things more than me, ofc - who knows. Anyway - all of this is making me grumpy re: the game. It does look nice and the general sandbox/exploration is still nice, but I feel like I'm constantly fighting UI/usability issues. Maybe it's time to try Space Haven and make my "backlog" be zero, again.

Finished Dark Envoy. As I said before, it's more of a dungeon crawler but with some limited RPG elements. Because I played on the 'Easy' setting, I could put my party on auto AI control for the combat encounters. That worked pretty well to get through the many, many combat encounters. The main story was somewhat thin, but good enough to hold my attention. Not too many side quests, but those that were there were pretty interesting. There is an extensive crafting and enchanting system, and it was easy to use, but I never really found a compelling need to use it because the loot drops had plenty of good-enough items. The best part of the game were the party companions. They were not very deeply presented/written, and yet I found all of them very likeable and had empathy for them. This in contrast with the BG3 companions, who were very deeply and extensively written and yet I found them (mostly) unlikeable and annoying. Goes to show that at least for me, how deeply/well written are companion characters is very much secondary to whether I will like the characters and enjoy having them in my party. Those two things seem to be quite separate from each other. Taking into account the game's price, and how much time I had to sink into it to complete it (not much), I'd give the game a 70/100. It was worth my money and time.

The guy of many ImmSim choices seemed to like it a little. 😁 'The last time I liked everything about a game was probably Baldur's Gate 3': Raphael Colantonio, co-founder of Arkane Studios, talks us through the games installed on his PC | PC Gamer I also thought it was a big upgrade over DOS (never really warmed up to that). It's remarkable how little MANDATORY combat there is, for a start (in particular for its genre... and with a little spell / environment creativity, charisma, sneaking and outside of the frigging box thinking rather than typical "tackle quest / area and rush through it). I mean, DOS is really a thinly veiled combat parcours, with every path through the maps gatekept by mobs (and if you don't keep level, you're toast). However, if you skip too much, you may still lack xp+gear for the end game (though speed runners are having a blast here exploiting the **** out of it). Still, Owlcat doesn't like this. :D On topic: Thief II. Hadn't played that proper in a decade or something. It's about time. They're not making them like this anymore. Whilst we're at it: Not a single fight so far in this one. 😆 Thief 2 - cutscene 6 [Eavesdropping]

Pathfinder, wrath of the righteous. I started on the Ivory Tower until I got to a point where an army of angels spawns behind me and a wall prevents me from leaving to the main map again. Something rang a bell in my mind from my very first game (barbarian, trickster, legendary maxed out 40 levels run). I found a previous save and decided to save that part for later (because it sort of begins the end of chapter iii) Visited Molten Scar, a Sarkorian mine, Blackwater (very frustrating, not because of enemies, I know how to zap and coup de grace them), but because the overall ambience is so dark its hard to spot the doors, even if I can open them ☹️ Visited Treebeard (not his real name, an ent garding a puzzle entrance). Took me way too long to work out the puzzle, with the little bridges closing and opening. I worked it out eventually when noticing that the lower of the two rows of "pegs" needs to be activated first, as they do not reset and lower themselves again, once raised i could focus on the patters on the upper row of pegs. Then it wasn't so hard to get the order correct. Screwed over the old chief and handed over the Mongrel tribe to Wenduag. My archer succubus (no way I can spell her name) decided the prison cell should be her new home (no matter how much i tried to convince her that kissing a undead self wont drain my life force) and my Lich wannabe had a conversation with my new Pillar of Skulls. Also, added the corpse of Staunton to the ranks of the guards of my shiny new Ziggurath. Anyone who can tell me what the Arcane Armour feat is good for? Does it work alone or do you need to then take feats in say light armour in addition to? (leveling up as a sorcerer/lich with focus on undead bloodline powers, necromancy/evocation and max spell penetration). Also gave myself sufficient skills to wield a scythe, because it's cool (not very practical)

Thaos' strongest soldier.

You can't be serious. What if there's a player who's deferential to authority "in real life" and plays a detective game. In that game some authority figure - who the player (and the character) knows is evil and corrupt - tells that player to not investigate further: should that player then stop playing the game? And more importantly: should that player even think about getting a refund because the devs didn't take servile players into account when designing the game? I don't really want an answer for those questions.

I completed Dreams in the Witch House after about 15 hours Its good fun as a quick adventure game with a Cthulhu setting and it has some engaging mechanics like how you study to progress skills and the survival elements that include food and sleep and how those align to your sanity You get 60 days to complete one of the final endings and I wish I knew this because then I could have focused on one type of strategy I ended up with an " okay " ending but not ideal. Im not going to replay the game but it would be easy to do that and get a better ending My ending In summary, its a worthy indie adventure game and recommended. It gets 65\100 on the "BruceVC game rating system " Now Im going play SOMA @majestic its time 👺

To make it easy on the Devs they could reuse the Zipper. The elevator could just be connecting one connection on the bottom and one at the top and when you latch on the aphid runs and it pulls you up the line. Like they Ziplines going in a lateral direction but instead this goes vertical.

My first computer gets a Retro remake 🫨 Brings tears to my eyes 🥲

I have my wishlists here: https://gg.deals/ That way I just check that. Back to Solasta. I enjoyed the main campaign, even though it isn't something special. It scratches that RPG itch though far more than a lot of the RPGs that try to be special. I found the Palace of Ice DLC very satisfying. And I found the valley campaign surprisingly fun as well. It is a nice bit of content to come back to later, after finishing the main game, when you have played something else for a palette cleanser and think "Solasta was fun, why don't I try that extra campaign?"

I think it would be nice to have a mage that supports other players, through healing and such. So here's some supportive mage equipment ideas. Sweet staff-made from nectar, gum nuggets, sprigs, and chocolate chunks. Rather then dealing damage, the sweet staff's projectiles heal allies, it's charged shots creat a area of effect that heals allies over time for awhile. But it uses a lot of stamina, so it must be used sparingly. Flower petal armor-mage armor made from flower petals, blueberry leather, bee fuzzy, and cactus petals. Headpiece grants cleansing aura effect, which makes every third hit of a staff's three hit combo grants one stack of cleansing aura, to a maximum of three, the next perfect block you do will consume all cleansing aura stacks and remove some buildup effect from you and all nearby allies, the more stacks consumed, the more buildup effect it will remove. Chest and leg pieces grant wizard's defense effect, which makes staff attacks make perfect blocking easier for a short time. Set bonus grants sweet aura effect, which makes cleansing auras that consume all three stacks also increases your and allies healing effectiveness for awhile. Sleek effect is rejuvenation, which allows you to revive downed players and buggies faster